Miles Kington in The Independent, Thursday 4 November 2004

From time to time I have to convince myself that moving out of London was not a mistake, and one of the best places at which to do that is a small town south of Bath, not far from Frome,  called Nunney.

It has a stream ambling through the middle of the place in a very photogenic manner, under houses and little bridges and even on to the road in rainy weather.
It has one of the biggest  and best preserved ruined castles I know, still sitting in its own moat bang in the middle of town.

It has an extraordinary music instrument workshop where you can get almost anything mended, including a beat-up old euphonium of mine, and where the boss makes Gascon bagpipes for fun.

For a long time the most notable thing about Nunney was its most famous resident, Anthony Powell, but now that distinction is borne by the quite extraordinary Jazz Cafe which takes place on  the first Sunday of each month. The words "Jazz Cafe" conjure up metropolitan images of late nights and smoky rooms, so it comes as a pleasant shock to find that the Nunney Jazz Cafe takes place in the  Village Hall in the middle of the day.

Doors open at noon, there are three sets of jazz on stage, there is a great lunch on offer ( if you get there in time ) and there is good local art on the walls. People spread along the long  tables in communal fashion, reading the Sunday papers, chatting to neighbours and vaguely keeping an eye open for errant children - yes, children, because this is really a family affair, and when my wife and I went  along to the last Jazz Cafe, I felt vaguely guilty that we weren't taking a brood with us. I also felt vastly relieved, of course.

On that occasion the star attraction was saxophonist Iain Ballamy, who has been in the forefront of British jazz ever since he was a member of Loose Tubes with Djnago Bates. He lives locally in Frome, but even so it was a coup for Keith Harrison-Broninski to get him along. Keith Harrison-Broninski ? Who he ? Well, he is the guiding light behind the event, along with wife Ann. It is a melancholy fact  that almost anything worthwhile happening in the jazz field is made to happen by the energy of one lone lunatic fighting against the world ( examples are Ronnie Scott, Peter Boizot, Norman Granz ) and Keith is a composer/musician/organiser who lives in Nunney and not only madly keeps the whole thing going, but plays pretty good piano in the resident trio, along with Bristolians Dave Griffiths on bass and Andy Tween on drums.

In order to stop it being just a drifting jam session, Keith likes to impose a theme on each Sunday and this Sunday it aims to be the tango music of the great Astor Piazzolla. People are  encouraged to dance as well. You don't dance the tango ? Then come to the tango lessons which take place in an adjoining room at Nunney Village Hall, whose door occasionally opens to reveal people having fun to a quite different music.

As a contrast to tangos, there will also be a star guest appearance by local ex-James Brown saxophnist Pee Wee Ellis, but I think it's the tangos I would be going for. The house band already  boasts a violinist in Mike Evans and a fine accordionist in Karen Street, so it should be a humdinger of a session.
Somewhere on the website ( <www.nunneyjazzcafe.org> ) Keith says that he aims to reproduce the spirit of the "guingette" as seen in Monet's paintings of lazy summer music gardens, but it reminded me also of an interview given by black American altoist Steve Coleman when he first came to Europe. He couldn't get used to the idea of us Europeans sitting in silent rows, he said, enjoying music by not moving. It was quite unnerving. In the clubs he was used to back home, music was one part of the  whole set-up, another element along with talking, flirting, drinking, networking, scoring, laughing, joking . . . Wasn't there anywhere in Europe like that, he wanted to know ?

Why, yes, there is, Mr Coleman, and it's in Nunney, Somerset.